No Air Travel

I hope that, at some point, the security theater (which is prudent for the moment, but which seems likely to be extended indefinitely) that is due to the British arrests of the liquid bomb plotters (good intelligence work there, and perhaps some luck if it's true that the tip was from someone in the British Muslim community) recedes eventually and air travel gets more sane.

I think that the restrictions will remain while GW Bush remains president. But I can hope that after he steps down someone more sane will take over and rationalize those rules. As it is, much as I love my friends and family in the U.S.A., I don't think I'll be travelling there anytime soon. I left the U.S. because the working life there was too tense. It turns out that vacationing there would be similarly tense.

But that's just a feeling I get. On the practical side, all laptops and electronics need to be in checked in luggage. I know people who've already lost laptops in luggage. When the environment becomes *much* more target rich, it's likely that the incidence of lost laptops will increase. It's not that the loss of the laptop would be impossible to recover from (although, since I live in a third world country, it's going to be at least 3 times harder to buy a replacement than it would be for some random citizen of the USA), but I'm attached to my laptops. And to my cellphone too. And sol and I are very happy with the MP3 player that my brother sent to us for our birthday. I'm just not risking the laptop in checked luggage if I can avoid it.

Of course there are some trips for which I would check in the laptop. A trip to New Zealand, for instance, if we're granted the privilege of immigrating there. I'd check in the laptop, sure. I doubt if it would get lost in NZ anyway. And if it did, well, it would be an investment.

But the U.S.A., while GW Bush remains president, I'm staying away. Frankly, I don't even want to fly within the Philippines while this state of hysteria (again, prudent, for the next few weeks, stupid if extended beyond that for no good reason) prevails.